To Ally or Not? The Critical Factors of a New Alliance Model in Urban Infrastructure Projects

Pekka Valkama; Lasse Oulasvirta; Ilari Karppi

doi:10.18778/1641-4233.24.05

Authors

Pekka Valkama University of Vaasa, School of Management https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5915-9070
Lasse Oulasvirta Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4195-1331
Ilari Karppi Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3371-7991

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1641-4233.24.05

Keywords:

alliance model, public-private partnership, building contract, urban infrastructure investment

Abstract

The research explains the background of an alliance model which is a new collaborative project concept in urban infrastructure investments and reviews stakeholder views of applied alliances based on a case study analysing project experiences in the city of Tampere, Finland. The alliance model is considered a potential solution for some of the chronic productivity and other problems of the building industry and the classic difficulties in public-sector investment projects, but the model fits a purpose primarily only in publicly funded, technically challenging and sufficiently large projects. The alliance model has initiation, development and implementation phases, and of these phases, the interviewed experts named the development phases as particularly critical, as team spirit, shared ethos, and joint goals must all be built in that phase before the actual collaboration between contract parties can be initiated.

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Author Biographies

Pekka Valkama, University of Vaasa, School of Management

Pekka Valkama – Associate Professor of social and health management, associated also with the studies of digital economy in the School of Management at the University of Vaasa, Finland. His educational qualifications include i.a. a PhD (Admin.), a Lic.Sc. (Bus. Adm.), and a M.Sc. (Admin.). The focus fields of his research publications have been innovations in public finance, organizational innovations in public services, partnerships in public service delivery systems, management accounting in local governments, competitive tendering and outsourcing of local public services, and competitive neutrality of quasi-markets of public services.
Lasse Oulasvirta, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business

Lasse Oulasvirta – Professor of public sector accounting at the Faculty of Business and Management, Tampere University, Finland. He holds a PhD in administrative sciences and a M.A. in business economics. His dissertation topic was local government grant financing. His research focus has been broadly on public sector and local government financing, accounting and auditing. Some of his latest publication concern local government risk management (LGS 2017) and accounting principles and standardization in the public sector (CPA 2014, JEI 2016).
Ilari Karppi, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business

Ilari Karppi – Adjunct Professor and university lecturer in regional studies. His key research interests focus on smart urbanity with special reference to planning of sustainable urban environments and visionary leadership in urban development/renewal processes. He is also interested in field methods for studying sensemaking in local and regional land-use and mobility planning as well as transit-oriented development.

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